Joe Patrick
Born in South Carolina in 1938, Joseph Patrick earned a BFA in 1960 from the University of Georgia, Athens. His graduate studies led to the MFA degree in Painting at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1962. The year before he had married Genie Hudson, a fellow artist. After teaching for two years in Mississippi and one year in Virginia, Genie and Joe moved to Iowa City in 1965 where he taught drawing and painting in The University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History until his retirement in 2004.
During his tenure at UI Patrick taught courses in Life Drawing and for twenty-five years headed the Drawing Area of the School. Additionally he taught other drawing and painting courses at all levels and developed a popular four-hour workshop figure drawing class for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. This class was the core of his last fifteen years of teaching.
Patrick’s work has been featured in over a hundred group and solo exhibitions across the country and in Mexico and Venezuela. His solo shows featured oil paintings, but in the past two decades they have included his drawings, watercolors, and photographs. This website presents work he has done since 2008. Previous works may be viewed on his earlier website, joseph-patrick.com. His largest and most significant shows were in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1980, Merida, Venezuela in 1996, at the University of Iowa Museum of Art in 2003, at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina in 2007, and at the University of Northern Iowa in 2011.
Over the years the Patricks have traveled to Mexico. For nearly four decades they have had a studio home in Oaxaca where they now spend five or six months every year. All of his oil paintings are generated by photographs Joe makes in a Oaxaca market. In both Oaxaca and Iowa City he works on oil paintings from these photographs and makes portrait drawings of friends, directly from life. This website presents his small oil paintings, portrait drawings, and views of various exhibitions.
SOURCE - https://www.joe-patrick.com/about (Oct 2025)
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Obituary
Joseph Alexander Patrick passed away November 6, 2019. He was born in 1938 and raised in White Oak, South Carolina, the youngest of 3. Joe and Genie, wife of 58 years, settled in Iowa City where they raised their 2 children Benjamin and Amanda and created a lifetime of friends and memories. He was a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa. He treasured his time teaching as well as his students and colleagues, many who became lifelong friends. Joe had many passions. His love of beauty was apparent in his artwork, meticulous garden, and his love of music. The Iowa City Chamber singers was a source of great joy and pride where he was an active member for over 40 years. His numerous drawings of the people of Iowa are a small slice of his body of work. Joseph and Genie split their time between Iowa City and Oaxaca, Mexico since 1978. Many of Joe's paintings reflect his love of Oaxaca through the markets and the people. Joe has left us a lifetime of work, which is a great source of joy and memories for his family and many friends. As one of his students stated, " He was the perfect combination of humor, swagger, and sincerity."
Joe is survived by his wife Genie; his son Benjamin and daughter in-law Denise Martinez; his daughter Amanda and son in-law Fernando (Lalo) Rivera and their 3 children Joseph, Julia, and Bella.
SOURCE - https://www.press-citizen.com/obituaries/icp018730 (Oct 2025)
